Can - The Lost Tapes

Nah, never too nerdy. . . ; )

really nice work, Soundslike! thank you!

No work involved--just putting tracks with the right years, mostly. Fellow nerds should definitely try it, though--not like I needed a new incentive to listen to Can's albums, but it's been really fun hearing this unheard stuff (and underheard) with what I've loved so well.

I would like to second that, good work Soundslike. I only go on ILM for the nerdy stuff!

yeah that is excellent; not that I really want to hear all these albums this way, but now I can make a chronological 10 hour long Can playlist

"Dead Pigeon Suite" is fantastic; exactly the music I want to hear at the moment.

the part where Damo kind of comes out of nowhere is my favorite

^^^ Oh, and this.

Back in print again, after the first press sold out, but it won't last long, as far as I hear.

Also read this sold 2k in Wk1 of release.

I'm so clueless I don't know if that's good or bad. I mean, in the mind of the sort of person for whom Can really are "bigger than the Beatles," it sound incredibly low. But maybe not?

I can't imagine how all the great reissues happening over the last decade are making a living for anyone, if Can sells 2k copies of their first unreleased music in 25 years. . .

― Soundslike, Friday, June 29, 2012 6:01 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think 2k first week sales of a Can box set that retails for $35-40 is pretty decent for 2012.

It is very good sales. They were caught off-guard by how well it did.

I like you, soundslike.

Hey, I bought two! By mistake, forgot I'd pre-ordered it long ago. Found a good home for the second copy.

Soundslike idea is great, I'm definitely going to "playlist" them that way.

A bunch of The Lost Tapes are on YouTube. I like this short version of "Dead Pigeon Suite"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=THc1zz1EqSI There's also an 11-minute version, which looks like it'll have the same visuals as several other TLPs. Scared to use the YTD converter now.

nice one for "Messer, Scissors, Fork and Light" (a trailer for some shit before, be prepared to click "skip ad")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUwBdGAbrMA

what's the deal with the new 2012 reissues? same shit different box? also wasn't there supposed to be a studio album box too?

speaking of unlimited edition: always loved doko-e and was equally impressed when i heard the 20 minute jam that this ever so small song was edited out of: impressed by the clarity of czukay to pick just the greatest bit.

i like this box set a fair bit but it's really congealed my dislike for karoli's soloing - it's the worst part of can for me: if only he kept to rhythm and hooks and effects.

Yeah--always wondered how much Karoli adds, because he definitely liked to noodle. His mid-80s album with Polly Eltes is surprisingly great, though--sounds like the Raincoats, Family Fodder, etc. with little noticeable guitar at all.

unless this is referring to weird peripheral can & solo works i haven't heard, this is baffling to me - even allowing for a distinction between his rhythmic playing & soloing i love karoli, he's one of the most distinct constitutive parts of their sound, what smooths it out, maybe

karoli - defn refers to the soloing on this box and a lot of the boots and live stuff i have. in the the major recordings he's usually pretty fine but not always.

the late great - I believe that the album box is scheduled for the end of the year.

I guess I'm thinking generally of post-'Future Days' Can, where he really favors a highly processed, very thin and needle-like sound for his solos, which strike me as very "rock" and against the general melding-of-all-parts that I associate with Can. That said, I still tend to like later Can more than most people (particularly the last, self-titled album).

That said, I still tend to like later Can more than most people (particularly the last, self-titled album).

Yeah, for all of the venom directed at the s/t album (a friend hated it so much that he gave me his copy), it's also my choice for the post-Babaluma studio material.

funny, i've really only heard/thought good things about s/t (All Gates Open, to name one, is absolutely classic Can. and i think there's a couple others).
but before that one saw delight was a serious drop off and out of reach was to me completely unremarkable and i haven't missed it since selling it many years ago

'Can' ends--the album, and the band--in the stupidest way possible. But it has some great tracks.

I love the ominous swarming synths on this one. Has that needly Karoli soloing, but doesn't bother me for some reason:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHn9faRcD48

love this song!

I wonder if you could make a whole mix of (ex)Krautrockers making sweet dark dance tunes in the late 70s. . . Kraftwerk, obviously, but then Can, and even Amon Duul II got in on the action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFYd1VG8hIM

Rite Time is like the s/t album but with Malcolm on vocals!

I was surprised to find out that people don't like Saw Delight. It's a pretty fun album with some real catchy instrumental stuff; has very little to do with classic Can but it's pretty good for what it is. The Inner Space album is pretty good too. "A Spectacle" is funky as hell and IMO one of their best post-Future Days tracks.

The one they did in between (Out of Reach?) was kind of garbage though...was that ever released on CD?

No, that's the one they all hate and disown.

It was released as a two-fer with Inner Space in the 90s but I think it's been missed out of all the more recent reissues/remasters:
http://www.discogs.com/Can-Inner-Space-Out-Of-Reach/release/173674

(I have that CD and assume it was a legit reissue but it does have a slightly cheap look to it so it may not be. There are a couple of OK tracks on Inner Space but really the whole twofer is a bit of a sad affair)

beg yr pudden: http://www.discogs.com/Can-Out-Of-Reach/release/2432778

(xp to self)

Actually I guess Inner Space (which is the more "correct" title, Inner Space or s/t?) is p. fun up until the Can-Can tips it over the edge for me, damn me and my taking music too seriously gene. The drumming is tight as hell and iirc it has a really bright, clean sound which reminds me of 90s post-rock more than the thick swampy vibe I get from earlier Can. It just seems to be missing something though. The Out of Reach half I can remember exactly nothing about except that it feels quite long to sit through.

God, those last two tracks--what a bummer way to go out.

While I like 'Out of Reach' pretty well, the first Phantom Band album is by far the best late-era Can album (that happens not to be called a Can album).

I've always felt that if you are an instrumental jam band that likes playing puns on the fact that you are called Can, then after 12 albums, you have the right to cover a very famous (esp. in Europe) instrumental song called the Can-Can.

they've earned the right to play that jam and for that I salute them...

even if its never going on a C90 of my favourite Can tracks.

(this C90 would be vastly different pre&post Lost Tapes)

the first Phantom Band album is by far the best late-era Can album (that happens not to be called a Can album).

Uhhhhhh, have you heard "Movies" by Holger Czukay?

It's a pretty good version of "Can-Can" too!

the first Phantom Band album is by far the best late-era Can album (that happens not to be called a Can album).

Uhhhhhh, have you heard "Movies" by Holger Czukay?

Yeah--I dig 'Movies'. But I'll still take 'Phantom Band' as my favorite post-Can album, with Karoli's probably next, followed by the second 'Phantom Band' album.

Made a mix of post-Can Can stuff a few years back that might be of interest to some:

http://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/one-off-can-the-church-of-latter-day-can-book-two-beyond-can-1977-1984/

01 Michael Rother (with Liebezeit & Plank) – “Karussell” (Edit) – ['Flammende Herzen,' 1977] (3:22)
02 Michael Rother (with Liebezeit & Plank) – “Zeni” (Edit) – ['Flammende Herzen,' 1977] (3:38)
03 Czukay (with Liebezeit & Rebop Baah) – Cool in the Pool” – ['Movies,' 1979] (5:03)
04 Phantom Band (with Liebezeit) – “Without Desire” – ['Phantom Band,' 1980] (2:38)
05 Phantom Band (with Liebezeit & Rosko Gee) – “You Inspired Me” – ['Phantom Band,' 1980] (4:00)
06 Eurythmics (with Liebezeit) – “Take Me To Your Heart” – ['In The Garden,' 1981] (3:35)
07 Eurythmics (with Czukay & Liebezeit) – “Never Gonna Cry Again” – ['In The Garden,' 1981] (3:05)
08 Les Vampyrettes (Czukay & Plank) – “Biomutanten” (Edit) – ['Biomutanten' EP, 1981] (3:32)
09 Phantom Band (with Liebezeit) – “Experiments” – ['Freedom of Speech,' 1981] (3:34)
10 Liebezeit, Czukay & Jah Wobble – Trench Warfare” – ['How Much Are They?' EP, 1981] (4:50)
11 Czukay (with Liebezeit) – “Fragrance” – ['On the Way to the Peak of Normal,' 1981] (4:13)
12 Phew (with Liebezeit & Czukay) – “Fragment” – ['Phew,' 1981] (3:59)
13 Schmidt (with Bruno Spoerri) – “Toy Planet” – ['Toy Planet,' 1981] (3:04)
14 Schmidt (with Liebezeit, Karoli & Gee) – “Endstation Freiheit” – ['Filmmuzik Vol. 2,' 1981] (3:37)
15 Dunkelziffer (with Liebezeit) – “Strom” (Edit) – ['Stil Der Neuen Zeit' EP, 1982] (3:03)
16 Czukay, Jah Wobble, The Edge & Francois Kevorkian – “Snake Charmer” – ['Snake Charmer' EP, 1983] (4:07)
17 Gabi Delgado (with Liebezeit) – “Victim” – ['Mistress,' 1983] (3:30)
18 Phantom Band (with Liebezeit) – “The Party” – ['Nowhere,' 1984] (1:31)
19 Phantom Band (with Liebezeit) – “Loading Zone” – ['Nowhere,' 1984] (3:50)
20 Dunkelziffer (with Suzuki) – “Watch On My Head” – ['In The Night,' 1984] (2:52)
21 Karoli & Polly Eltes (with Liebezeit) – “Yours & Mine” – ['Deluge,' 1984] (4:28)
22 Karoli & Polly Eltes – “Watch On My Head” (Edit) – ['Deluge,' 1984] (3:47)

Yeah, that is a fantastic mix. I downloaded it back when you originally posted it and have spent quite some time with it. Book One also finally motivated me to finally check out the latter albums. Two questions:

1) Does anyone know if the album box set is going to be all of their studio albums?

2) Soundslike, are you ever going to get that blog going again? It was fantastic and I still check once a week or so in the hopes that its active again.

>But I'll still take 'Phantom Band' as my favorite post-Can album, with Karoli's probably next, followed by the second 'Phantom Band' album.

hats off for comprehensive listening

personal favorite Irmin Schmidt solo moment = the 15 minute "Man On Fire" from Filmmusik Vol. 2. I drop that one on road trips a lot even now. But it is not post-Can Can. I'm not as into a lot of Schmidt's solo stuff, but the best of it sounds more like Schmidt than any echo of the previous band

I like quite a lot of Schmidt's solo material but Czukay's stuff is just on a whole other level to anything any other member of Can has achieved outside of Can

Anyone know the full story of why Czukay left Can? I've just read another interview with Irmin Schmidt where he drops all sorts of dark hints about it being a "private matter" - I say another because it's not the first time I've read him say that. Whereas I've read Czukay say that the rest of Can didn't think he was a good enough bass player (and having just heard a live bootleg from 1976 I can tell you he is, uh, a good bass player)

@jon re. 1) - that was what I'd heard initially; that it would include even the previously brushed under the carpet album. I hope so! There's not been any real news on it though yet. We shall see...

The first couple tracks of that Irmin Schmidt & Kumo album were excellent...anyone heard of it?

Czukay's stuff is just on a whole other level to anything any other member of Can has achieved outside of Can

I'm objectively with you on this one, I always played Movies / Peak of Normal / Rome Remains Rome more than most Can

Yeah that nonsense about Rosko being a better bass player than Czukay always sounded like madness. Czukay was more interested in tablecore electronics & shortwave live-sampling than playing bass by that point, and the rest of the band felt that what he was doing didn't fit anymore. If it got more personal than that, it certainly didn't need to. Here's the bit about his interest in sampling & leaving from Czukay's interview in the Can Book.

I could use all possible sources of sound… the only problem was the
disagreement among ourselves. Reebop, who later had also joined the band,
thought that this music would steal people’s soul. That’s a typical native idea,
that someone can take your soul away by taking a photograph. Fine, you can
have this idea, but you can’t get out of the middle ages with it. I had, moreover,
a vision of special media-referent music. It even came to fisticuffs with Reebop.
I should say, he hit me and I defended myself. Ten minutes before the start of
a concert in Berlin. Of course he was sorry, and I’m only mentioning it because
it was a clear sign to me that it was time to go my own way.

Is The Can Book worth seeking out?

1) Does anyone know if the album box set is going to be all of their studio albums?

'The vinyl deluxe box set, due in early 2012, will feature remastered editions of all 14 of Can’s studio albums on both vinyl and CD, as well an exclusive, previously unreleased live album (vinyl-only), a newly remastered Out Of Reach, extensive booklets and more. It will be available for pre-order next month (October 2011).'

having a really hard time finding out about this online - i'm surprised they're remastering them again considering they just did this for the SACDs not that long ago

ah ok doesn't sound like a remaster so much as a repackaging

there are two books; the first one to come out was the 'Can Book': http://www.amazon.com/The-Can-Book-Pascal-Bussy/dp/0946719055

the second was the 'Can Box: Book': http://www.amazon.com/Can-Box-Book-Hildegard-Schmidt/dp/3933642019

my quote's actually from the later one. they've both got unique interviews. they were less guarded in the first book and more stuff about the solo careers; a lot of good journalism. the second book is much longer and is organized as four extensive interviews with each band member telling the history from their own perspectives, so their personalities really come through. really spells out what happened with their recording process when they moved to multitrack recording in 1974/5. I'd probably get the second one before the first one (if you can even find a reasonably priced copy of the first)

Good info, thanks.

(xp) Yeah, the Pascal Bussy book has good stuff, esp. from Jaki, who's such a tough nut on the band's career, he doesn't seem to rate much beyond "Monster Movie"!